Charlie is a freshman.
And while he's not the biggest geek in the school, he is by no means popular. Shy, introspective, intelligent beyond his years yet socially awkward, he is a wallflower, caught between trying to live his life and trying to run from it.
Charlie is attempting to navigate his way through uncharted territory: the world of first dates and mix tapes, family dramas and new friends; the world of sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, when all one requires is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite. But he can't stay on the sideline forever. Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dance floor.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story that will spirit you back to those wild and poignant roller-coaster days known as growing up.
Review
This book made me think a lot about hype. As in, I mostly picked this book up to read because I had heard so many great things about it, so I thought, it must be great, right? Only, I think maybe the hype for the book, built it up so much, that when I didn't love this book, I was even more disappointed.
While reading this book, I actually put it down several times, and I'm not just talking about reading a couple chapters and stopping for a few hours or even days. I'm talking about reading a couple of pages, and then leaving it for weeks, while I finished several other books and then I'd go back to this one for a bit.
It's not that I hated the book, because I didn't. I actually thought that a lot of the characters were good, and the story itself was well written. Only, for me, there wasn't anything that really hooked me. I've read books that I liked less than this one, but which kept me turning the pages more, and I don't really know why that is.
When I sat down to start this review, I had trouble, because I know that overall I thought the book was pretty good, that it had it's moments of great and some that I found a little less than good. I can't really put my finger on the problem I had with this book, other than the fact that it left me feeling kind of, for lack of a better description, kind of 'meh' about this book.
Was it great? For me, no. Was it bad? Again, no.
For me, The Perks of Being a Wallflower was ok. It's not one I'd go back and read again, and I wouldn't rush out to recommend it to my friends and family as a must read, but it was ok.
Rating
5/10
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